-Messenger file photo
Two customers look over the selection of produce in the Dayton grocery store in this file photo. The board that oversees the store has announced that it will close when the last of the groceries are sold.

DAYTON — Dayton’s community owned grocery store announced that it will soon be closing its doors for good.

The Dayton Community Grocery, 22 N. Main St., has been community-owned since 2001 and is led by a board of local leaders. But the board announced Thursday that despite cutting costs, ordering alongside other stores, and limiting store and employee hours, it is at a crossroads that leads to closure.

“The store is just not able to compete with big box stores to generate the income necessary to keep going at this rate,” the board announced in a Facebook post. “The board doesn’t want to be any further in debt than we currently are, and we feel like the responsible thing to do is to go out debt-free. While everyone wants to see the store continue, we feel that to meet the greater responsibility to the community, we need to close the store.”

The board noted in its announcement that the store has applied for grants, fundraised, partnered with Iowa State University Extension, purchased from sources other than the store’s main supplier, sent out a mailer informing the public of the situation, and also initiated promotions and special products like Webster City Custom Meats pork and the Webster County Pork Producers coupons.

The store, which employs eight people on part- and full-time basis, will continue to sell grocery items currently in the store until they are gone, but will not be placing additional orders. The store will close after the last of the groceries is sold.